Contact

Laboratoire GRESCO

Université de Poitiers - UFR SHA

8, rue René Descartes - TSA 81118

86073 Poitiers Cedex 9

05.49.36.64.90

gresco@univ-poitiers.fr

Two-sites Poitiers University and Limoges University

The Sociological ResearchGroupon Contemporary Societies (GRESCO) is a research center of the Universities of Poitiers and Limoges, founded in 2008, and directed by Choukri BEN AYED (Limoges) and Christian PAPINOT (Poitiers).

Today, GRESCO includes 34 main members (2 PRAG, 2 research engineers and 30 teachers-researchers), 13 associate members (teachers-researchers in sociology) and 33 PhD students, distributed on the sites of Poitiers and Limoges. 16 doctoral thesis (PhD dissertations) and 5 HDR (accreditation to direct PhD research) prepared inside the center has been defended between 2008 and 2015.

Here we take an interest in learning processes, mechanisms and systems within structures (schools, training centres, businesses, etc.), which validate and certify learning and, on a wider level, within traditional socialization spheres (families, districts, community groups, businesses, jobs, etc.); logically-speaking, this area comprises the analysis of development paths that the phases of any learning impose on individuals and groups that the individual is involved in.

“Professionalization, expertise and reforms: sociology of categories and classifications”

The study of categories and classifications is a fundamental approach of sociology and is distinctly in line with the Durkheimian orientation (categories and classifications as institutions). It reflects on naturalized categories by questioning the conditions of their invention and their institutionalization on the one hand and, on the other hand, by reflecting on cognitive and political representation work and its effects of constituting social groups and social issues.

“Cultures, territories and inequalities: sociology of social spaces”

The core issue of this area can be found at the point where cultures, territories and inequalities meet. The idea of culture is addressed here in its polysemy: it refers just as much to issues on cultural practices, appropriation and identification as to the analysis of cultural policies. The idea of territory is also envisaged here in a wider sense. Territory is in particular viewed in terms of demographic modifications, which affect its social composition, its activities, its development and its representations.

Publications

Invited researchers

– In 2014, the GRESCO had the pleasure to welcome Nadia Lamamra in the University of Poitiers. Sociologist at Institut Fédéral des Hautes Etudes en Formation Professionnelle (IFFP) of Lausanne (Switzerland), she was presentin Poitiersfrom 10 March to11 April 2014.

– In 2013, the GRESCO had the pleasure to welcome three researchers:

Shigeru Okayama, professor at the Faculty of Political Science and Economics of Waseda University (Tokyo). He came at the University of Limoges in february and gave a presentation on the transformations of the higher education in Japan.

Regula Leemann is professor of sociology at the University of Basel (Switzerland), also specialist of sociology of education. She came during 6 months at Poitiers. She benefited from a research fellow of the Region Poitou-Charentes. This site presents the research team for which she is responsible.

– In November 2012, the GRESCO had the pleasure to welcome three researchers:

Maaria Linko is a sociologist, professor at Helsinki University, specialist of sociology of art, of literature and of urban cultures. She benefited from an ERASMUS mobility fellow. She gave two presentations at the conference “Recognition and consecration in the arts” :
“Are Book Reviews a Diminishing Form of Publicity for Non-fiction in Newspapers and in the Internet ?”
“An expert or a celebrity ? Non-fiction writers and their publicity in the press and in the internet”

Nuria Peist is historian of the art, assistant professor at Barcelona University, specialist of contemporary art. She benefited from an ERASMUS mobility fellow. She gave two presentation at the conference “Recognition and consecration in the arts” :
“The Networks to Success : Conditions of the Recognition and Consecration of the Modern Artist”
“Artistas plásticos, mediadores culturales y éxito comercial. Casos históricos para el análisis de un conflicto” / see the VIDEO

Timothy Dowd is a sociologist, professor at Emory University (Atlanta), specialist of sociology of culture and of sociology of music. He was chairman of a workshop and gave two presentation at the conference “Recognition and consecration in the arts” :
“The Remembering: Heritage Work in Progressive Rock Festivals at the Turn of This Century.”
“From Stage to Page : The Ongoing Consecration of Composers among U.S. Orchestras, Encyclopedias, and University Textbooks” / see the VIDEO

– In February and March 2010, the GRESCO had the pleasure to welcome José Luis Moreno Pestana at the University of Limoges. Professor of philosophy at the University of Cadix (Spain), sociologist, José Luis Moreno Pestana gave three presentations:
on the somatic culture and the anorexia in the GRESCO seminar
on Michel Foucault and the néo-libéralism in the GRESCO seminar
on his book “En devenant Foucault. Sociogenèse d’un grand philosophe” (Le Croquant, 2006).